The crisis-ridden spacecraft “Starliner” has returned to Earth without any major problems after three months in space. The capsule, manufactured by the US company Boeing, undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) 400 kilometers above Earth shortly after midnight German time without a crew on board, as live images from the US space agency NASA showed. After around six hours, the “Starliner” touched down in the desert of the US state of New Mexico.
Shortly before the Starliner landed, two braking chutes and then three parachutes opened as planned, allowing the capsule to touch down gently in the desert. Finally, six landing airbags were deployed. When it touched down, the capsule was only supposed to be traveling at a speed of 6.4 kilometers per hour. A NASA commentator in the live stream said that this was roughly the same speed as an elevator in a high-rise building.
Unmanned instead of with two astronauts on board
Astronaut Suni Williams and astronaut Barry Wilmore were actually supposed to fly back to Earth with the spacecraft – three months ago. But on the outbound flight, some of the engines overheated and failed, and helium leaked out. Due to safety concerns, NASA officials decided to keep the two astronauts on the space station. They were actually only supposed to stay there for eight days, but now it will probably be eight months.
The experts from Boeing and NASA disagreed about how high the risk to the astronauts’ health would have been on a manned return flight. Enormous forces act on space capsules when they re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere. Numerous sensors on board the capsule were designed to measure what the conditions would have been like for people inside when they re-entered the atmosphere.
SpaceX as a savior in times of need
Williams and Wilmore are to be brought back to Earth on another spacecraft: NASA is keeping two of the four seats free for them on a mission to the ISS planned for the end of September on the “Dragon” developed by the private space company SpaceX. The return flight, however, is not planned until February.
Williams and Wilmore’s two “Starliner” spacesuits, however, are already back on Earth – because this Boeing equipment cannot be used in the SpaceX capsule. If something happens on the ISS before the new “Dragon” arrives, only Williams can get into a reserve spacesuit.
However, two emergency seats were set up for the two in the cargo hold of a “Dragon” capsule, which also work without a spacesuit. In the event of an emergency on the space station, they could board it together with four other astronauts from the ISS and fly back to Earth.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240907-930-225658/2
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